WLAN drivers on Fedora
 

I've just installed Linux for the very first time, using a Fedora distribution from here. I'm now trying to get the machine connected to the internet, using a wireless USB adapter (Microsoft MN-510) - as far as I can tell, the distribution did not have drivers for it, so after searching online a bit, I've found some potentially suitable drivers at http://prism2.unixguru.raleigh.nc.us/. However, I have so far not been able to get them installed, wondering if anybody could help?

The specific errors I'm getting during installation seem to boil down to

RepoError: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: fedora. Please verify its path and try again

I'm not sure what repomd.xml is, or where I might be looking for it, but my system certainly can't seem to be able to find it. I'm also not entirely sure if I'm using the correct drivers - I have fedora 2.6.29, however, the latest kernel version I could find these drivers for is 2.4.22. I'm also actually guessing on my kernel version a bit, as the link above suggests looking in /boot/kernel.h, but, if I have a kernel.h file on my installation, I'm not sure where it is, and it certainly isn't under /boot... However, I suspect the repomd.xml problem is showing up well before I get to all the potential versioning issues.

Some more basic system information (an AMD desktop):
[aslepak@localhost ~]$ rpm -q redhat-release
package redhat-release is not installed
[aslepak@localhost ~]$ rpm -q fedora-release
fedora-release-11-1.noarch
[aslepak@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586
[aslepak@localhost ~]$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain.linuxbox 2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586 #1 SMP Wed May 27 17:14:37 EDT 2009 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
[aslepak@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep kernel-2
kernel-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586
[root@localhost log]# cat messages
Sep 20 15:10:04 localhost kernel: imklog 3.21.11, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Sep 20 15:10:04 localhost rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="3.21.11" x-pid="1169" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] restart

I'd appreciate any help. Or alternatively, if anyone can suggest a wireless card, USB or otherwise, that fedora has pre-built drivers for, that might make this whole problem go away for me, for the time being anyway.

Thanks,
Alex.

The page you refer to for "suitable drivers" is way out of date (2003) and the packages are for a 2.4 kernel, the current stable kernel is 2.6 (and very different from 2.4), and you are using 2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586.
So, the bottom line is, they won't work.

Tell us more about your USB dongle:

Plug it in, wait for it to settle, then tell us the output of the command lsusb in a terminal.
That will list all USB devices, and tell us what they are. Then we can help with finding and installing drivers.

Welcome to LQ!

Thanks for the help - I'd assumed that the 2003 drivers were likely out of date, but couldn't find anything newer that sounded appropriate... So, trying what you had suggested, lsusb output:

[ams11@localhost ~]$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 05dc:a702 Lexar Media, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045e:008c Microsoft Corp. Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 045e:006e Microsoft Corp. MN510 802.11b Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:00b0 Microsoft Corp. Digital Media Pro Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

So, it is recognizing the dongle correctly, but doesn't appear to be using it - on the adapter itself, the Power LED is on, however, the Wireless LED remains off. I get the same behavior (Power LED on, Wireless LED off) when plugging it into a Windows machine that doesn't have the drivers installed, so I presume it simply means that Linux, likewise, doesn't know how to use it. I can certainly set up all the parameters for my wireless connection for my router, but that doesn't get it any closer to working...

I searched on MN510 802.11b and found these links that may help you get it working:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...hp/product/673
http://wiki.debian.org/linux-wlan-ng
http://www.linux-wlan.org/

It looks as though you need either the linux-wlan-ng module or ndiswrapper and the windows driver.